


elementary hallelujahs

by griefhoney



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fate & Coincidence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 17:58:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18078275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/griefhoney/pseuds/griefhoney
Summary: "Well, look who I ran into," crowed Coincidence."Please," flirted Fate, "this was meant to be."





	elementary hallelujahs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jumpstarts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jumpstarts/gifts).



When they first meet dust is still settling on the battleground they’re now forced to call home. When they first meet their names are still hot from the fire of creation, dripping in meaning, enough to burn a human’s tongue right off if they dared speak them aloud.

“You.” Coincidence peers down from his perch on a low-hanging branch of an Oak tree that had determinedly survived the carnage. “What are you doing here?” 

“I could ask you the same thing.”

Fate smiles up at him, obnoxiously bright in the murky orange light. Red and gold is splattered across his tunic, a deceptively pretty pattern that distracts from the double-edged sword hanging at his side.

Humans may have invented this weapon but it’s the gods who created the concept of war.

“Getting some rest,” Coincidence replies, eyes still narrowed suspiciously. “And you?”

Shrugging slightly Fate says, “Waiting for you.”

“I was here before you.” 

“Hm. If you say so.”

There’s grin playing at the corners of Fate’s face – that and the mischievous twinkle in his eyes is enough for Coincidence to decide that he’s hung around enough for one day.

And what a day it’s been.

“You fought well,” Fate says, the words stumbling out of his mouth as he trips up the slight incline to stop Coincidence from disappearing.

“And that surprises you?”

It’s a stupid question; there’s not a lot in this universe that could surprise the man – the _creature_ – in front of him.

“No,” Fate flounders a little and nervously tucks a stray strand of long chestnut brown hair behind his ear, “I just thought I ought to tell you.” He stares at Coincidence for a second before adding, “It’s a _compliment_.”

Coincidence blinks. “I—thank you?”

“You’re welcome.”

Around them, the dust is starting to settle and the light which had been bathing them in orange and muted golds is fading into something a lot softer. Very unlike the harsh brightness of their previous domain. 

Coincidence thinks about compliments and then looks at Fate who in turn looks up at the steadily brightening sky. There are many things he could compliment about Fate’s chosen form, but the formulations sound clunky even in his own head so he leaves it at, “This world will suit you.” 

The pale, golden light of their new sun certainly does.

“Thank you,” Fate says with a kind of sincerity that should have no place in the voice of something as ancient as him.

 

*

 

They meet again in a season that humans have many names for but Coincidence can’t think of any of them at the moment because there is something a lot more urgent taking up the majority his thoughts.

Fate is sitting in the midst of a rowdy little congregation of children.

His hair is still as long as it was the last time they met which was an accident even though Fate is too proud and set in his ways to admit it. The children, all of them grubby, painfully human little things, are crawling all over him, delighting in his long hair and the vivid blue of his tunic.

When Fate catches sight of him he laughs, glancing up at the sun and then back at Coincidence who can’t help but feel like he’s intruding on something private.

“You’re late,” Fate calls.

The children are braiding small blue flowers into his hair. Cornflowers, if Coincidence remembers correctly.

One of them strays away from the flock and hesitatingly takes his hand, staring up at him in undisguised awe. It’s not something he will ever grow tired of.

“Your hair isn’t very long,” the child says, stating a fact like its an accusation.

“I like it shorter,” Coincidence replies.

The child shakes her head. “Men aren’t supposed to have short hair.” 

Smiling slightly Coincidence bends down and whispers, “I’m not a man, petal.”

She stares at him, eyes wide and as bright as any star in the sky. Coincidence straightens, not even trying to hide how pleased he is with himself.

“You need to learn how to braid,” is the next thing the little girl says and before he knows it he’s sitting beside Fate with his hands in his hair and colour in the tips of his ears

 

*

 

Fate is sitting on a set of pale, marble steps when Coincidence finds him. Or walks into him. He really can’t tell them apart anymore.

“What kept you?” Fate asks but Coincidence can’t answer, too busy staring at Fate’s mouth which is pulled into an almost childish pout. He’s never seen anyone of them _pout_. It’s not something Gods are typically seen doing.

“Nothing _kept_ me,” he replies, adding an extra bit of derision into his tone to make up for the stunned pause. “I chose to stay.”

“Stay here then,” Fate orders, uncharacteristically frank. “You never stay,” he adds, quickly, “you always find me but you never stay.”

With some put-upon reluctance, Coincidence sinks down on the steps beside him. The dark green of his cloak contrasts rather prettily with the pale lilac of Fate’s. Beyond them, the sea stretches out towards the horizon and a colourless streak indicates where the stormy green meets the vast, silent blue of the sky.

“What are you doing here anyway?” Coincidence asks.

“I’m waiting for someone.”

“Me?”

Fate glances at him, quick and coloured rosy pink. “No, not you,” he mutters.

Busy trying to ignore the twinge of disappointment in his stomach Coincidence doesn’t notice the clatter of footsteps coming from behind them and before he knows it the sound of tearing cloth rips through the air and a girl with long black hair and dressed in an even longer white dress is flying past him and onto the surrounding grass.

They stare at each other and then at the tear in her dress that almost reaches the top of her thigh.

“I’m…sorry,” he says haltingly.

But Fate interrupts him, leaning around him to say, “There’s someone up at the palace who might be able to help you with that.”

The poor girl looks half a breath away from fainting and so Fate gets to his feet and offers to walk her back up to the palace. 

Coincidence stays seated, frozen in indignance.

“You make a great speech about me never staying and then you _leave_?” He calls after them and the smile Fate throws over his shoulder at him does nothing to ease the righteous almost-fury simmering under his skin.

 

*

 

“Fancy seeing you here,” Fate laughs. Pushing up the visor of his helmet so that Coincidence can see at least half of his obnoxiously twinkling smile.

He’s been having a bad couple of years and Fate has absolutely nothing to do with it.

“Out of my way.”

Fate steps closer and under all the grime and dried blood of battle Coincidence can see both a challenge and a plea fighting a different kind of war in Fate’s eyes.

“We’re on different sides,” Coincidence says, urgency creeping into his tone as the sounds of the battle raging around them grow infinitesimally louder.

“We’re on _our_ side,” Fate insists

The certainty in his tone is too much and Coincidence takes a much-needed step back out of the bubble of peace they had involuntarily created. 

“ _Move_ ,” he grits out but Fate’s face has set into an expression of stubborn defiance. 

“Make me.”

Coincidence does as war dictates and as Fate probably knew he would and raises his sword in a wide, looping arch.

Fate is dust in the sunlight before his blood hits the ground.

 

*

 

In a dark alley and under the orders of something more powerful than the both of them combined Fate cries silent, anguished tears and draws the point of a dagger across Coincidence’s throat. 

He doesn’t understand why and the cornflowers a young peasant girl had pressed into his hand before he’d made this fateful turn drop to the ground before he does.

 

*

 

Coincidence wakes up to the smell of salt and the sound Fate’s quiet humming mixing with the roar of the ocean.

The sun isn’t shining and there’s a storm brewing at the horizon, dark, heavy clouds drowning out the helpless blue with their anger and promises of failing crops.

“You’re awake,” Fate says and launches himself at Coincidence who can do nothing but catch him around the waist to break his fall.

“You’re _here_ ,” he counters.

Fate is grinning, as gleeful and unashamedly happy as a child.

“Where else would I be?”

Coincidence can think of plenty of places Fate could be that aren’t his lap but he’s not about to ruin the best thing that’s happened to him in centuries.

So he goes about ruining it a different way, reaching up to cup Fate’s face in his hands and then pulling him down into a kiss that finally, briefly relieves him of the constant undercurrent of _want want want_ that has flooded his senses around Fate since their creation.

Fate kisses like he’s never done it before, which is strange considering his looks and occupation and Coincidence gladly falls into the role of leading the kiss, tightening his grip around Fate’s waist when his breath stutters into a gasp.

“You are insufferable,” he murmurs against the collum of Fate’s throat where a thin, pale scar ruins the otherwise tastefully tanned skin. Who knew that Fate tastes like salt and nectar.

“I’m no–not trying,” Fate manages to say before breaking off into a stilted moan when Coincidence finds a delightful little spot just underneath the hinge of his jaw.

“ _I know_.”

 

*

 

“I’ve found a name,” Fate exclaims joyfully when he appears out of thin air right where Coincidence had been standing a mere second ago.

“A name? Don’t you have one?”

“Do you?”

Coincidence only has the one he was given.

“Not in that sense, I suppose,” he admits and tries not to smile when Fate bounces on the heels of his feet.

“Yunho!”

Slightly taken aback Coincidence tries to repeat it. “Yoon-ho?”

“Yun-ho,” Fate repeats, slower this time.

“What does it mean?”

Fate shrugs. “What do you want it to mean?”

There are many lovely things Fate’s chosen name could mean. Coincidence has a list for every world they’ve ever presided over, every incarnation that has ruled over the steady beat of his heart.

But he can’t say any of that; there’s a twinkle in Fate’s eyes that means he knows what Coincidence is supposed to say.

So, just to be contrary, he doesn’t.

“Let me show you,” he says instead, voice dropping into a hoarse whisper and the twinkle in Fate’s eyes gets swallowed by two dilating pupils. It’s horribly satisfying to watch.

 

*

 

Time has sped up considerably in the last couple of years. Coincidence has seen her a couple of times, her pantsuit rumpled and the shadows under her eyes telling stories he doesn't have to worry about. 

He's been thinking about names. Seeing and hearing them everywhere, hearing his own used in the wrong situations and hearing Fate's used in the right. 

Never in all his many lives as he ever had a name that didn't mean something and it's a burden he's grown somewhat tired of carrying. 

 

*

 

“I want a name,” he says suddenly one hazy evening.

Fate, who’s sprawled out on the bed next to him, sits up. Looks of genuine surprise have always looked foreign on his face and this is no exception.

“A name?” He asks.

Coincidence nods.

“Like yours.”

Fate’s name – his other name, the one whose meaning solely belongs to Coincidence – is Korean. It’s a relatively common name that suits the soft determination that seeps into everything he does.

“I want a name,” he repeats firmly, letting his tongue roll around the syllables in a way that never fails to make Fate blush. “I want a name that belongs to you.”

And so Fate – caught off guard for what is probably only the second time in his many lives – gets on his knees and presses a soft, open-mouthed kiss to Coincidence’s sternum and gives him a name. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> not entirely sure what this is but it's late so who cares!


End file.
